ICON

What is ICON (ICX)?

ICON is a public blockchain protocol working towards a connected future with its flagship chain-agnostic interoperability solution, BTP.

BTP, or the Blockchain Transmission Protocol, supports the interconnectivity of different blockchains by enabling cross-chain token swaps and smart contract calls.

Thanks to this novel technology, ICON can connect various programmable networks such as Ethereum, Polkadot, Binance Smart Chain, Harmony, Moonriver, and NEAR.

Who are the Founders of ICON?

ICON was founded by Min Kim, an alumnus of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Kim was formerly the COO at Tapas Media, a US digital content distribution platform, and had a stint at leading South Korean fintech firm DAYLI as Chief Strategy Officer.

How Does ICON Work?

An open-source layer 1 blockchain, ICON is a programmable network similar to the other chains it attempts to connect. It is a delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) blockchain, which incentivizes validators to produce blocks and validate transactions.

An ICON validator is an entity that configures a server to connect to other validators on the network. These validators reach a consensus among each other and maintain an immutable blockchain.

Each block is made up of a set of transactions as well as a hash of the previous block. In this manner, each block can be traced back to its unique predecessor, forming a chain. A blockchain is immutable because if a transaction in an older block is changed, then so, too, will the hash of that block, thus breaking the chain.

Like many modern blockchains, ICON can do more than just transact. It features smart contracts written in Java and executed within Goloop’s Java Virtual Machine environment. While uncommon in smart contract development, Java is very popular in enterprise environments.

What Makes ICON Unique?

ICON’s main product offering is the Blockchain Transmission Protocol, a decentralized, trustless interoperability solution that uses light clients to verify cross-chain messages. To pass messages between blockchains, BTP relies on incentivized and community-operated relays.

Notably, relays do not factor into BTP’s security model; they only contribute to network liveness and reliability. Thanks to this design, BTP can maintain a fully trustless environment that doesn’t depend on third-party oracles or custodians.

BTP also supports smart contract calls, letting a smart contract on a source blockchain call any smart contract on a destination blockchain. This unlocks a whole world of potential regarding blockchain and decentralized application (dApp) interoperability.

How is the ICON Network Secured?

As mentioned, ICON uses DPoS for consensus, where validators run hardware similar to servers. Running a high-quality validator operation on ICON can cost upwards of $1000 a month, so incentivization is especially important.

This is accomplished via the network’s native ICX cryptocurrency, which validators lock up as a bond or stake. The size of a validator’s stake then determines how much ICX they can earn rewards as long as they continue to act in the network’s best interest.

Delegators or voters, meanwhile, can support validators and effectively add to their stake. For example, not every ICX holder wants to run a validator node, so they can simply support a validator of their choice and earn part of that validator’s rewards.

ICON has a system called IISS, or the ICON Incentives Scoring System, which mints 3 million ICX between voters, validators, BTP Relays, and the Contribution Proposal System. This results in a variable staking reward rate depending on what percentage of the ICX supply is staked.

What is the Use of ICX?

ICX is the native cryptocurrency of the ICON network. It is used for the payment of transaction fees, collateralization of DeFi platforms, value transfer, and network security via staking.

As mentioned previously, ICX is also minted to the Contribution Proposal System. This is a decentralized grant program operated by a subset of ICON validators. It funds teams building on the ICON blockchain and counts as a source of decentralized funding with consistent payouts and an easy application process.

How Much ICX is In Circulation?

ICX has a circulating supply of over 940 million coins. It is an inflationary cryptocurrency with no set maximum cap.

How Do You Buy ICX?

You can buy ICX on several top cryptocurrency exchanges. Several exchanges offer fiat pairs when trading ICX, but it’s also easy to buy ICX with a stablecoin like USDT.

ICON also features several decentralized exchanges within its ecosystem, which you can also use to trade into and out of ICX. Balanced is the most popular among these and features various community-governed decentralized finance (DeFi) tools.

Is It Possible to Buy ICX Instantly?

If you use an ICON-based DEX like Balanced to buy ICX, you’ll have to wait for the blockchain’s validators to write your transaction into a block and then finalize it. In contrast, buying ICX on a centralized exchange is even faster but may be inherently risky.

Before 2022, the infamous Mt. Gox collapse was one of the only examples of CEX failure. It was a warning that many failed to take seriously, as the recent collapses of FTX, Voyager, Celsius, and others have shown.

How Do You Store ICX?

However, the best way to insulate yourself from the risks associated with a failing custodian or one who acts in bad faith is to self-custody your crypto. To do so, you’ll need a wallet compatible with the ICON blockchain.

One example is the Hana Wallet, ICON’s first multi-chain wallet with dApp support, asset management, and governance on multiple chains.

Is ICX a Good Investment?

ICON is a blockchain project that brings the industry a little closer together, which is an often underappreciated virtue. Blockchains come in various shapes and sizes, and compatibility across the industry is anathema to many maximalists.

Ultimately, many blockchains attempt to do the same thing, even though they go at it in different ways, using different tools and programming languages. ICON’s BTP serves to make it a hub for the rest, and if it succeeds, an interconnected future may not be out of the industry’s reach.